World Chess Beat (September 2008)

World Women’s Chess Championship (August 28th – September 18th) – Sixty-four players gather in Nalchik, Russia for the Women’s crown. The top seed is Humpy Koneru of India, but she will be challenged by defending champion Xu Yuhua and Hou Yifan both of China and Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.

Official Site: https://nalchik2008.fide.com/

Playing Venue of Women’s World Championship.
Photo by FIDE.

Masters Grand Slam in Bilboa, Spain (September 1st -13th) – Six of the world’s top players will face off in the scenic town of Bilboa for one of the strongest chess events in history. With Viswanthan Anand (India), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Magnus Carslen (Norway), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), the six players tip the scales at 2775 ELO average! The stakes are high as the winning will carry home 400,000 euros or 585,000 U.S. dollars.

Official Site: https://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com/en_index.asp

The players are: Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Veselin Topalov. Photo by Nadja Woisin.

(September 10th-14th) – The 2nd Miami Open will be held in beautiful south beach and hopes to improve on its successful debut. Taken from the themiamichessopen.com website,

The grandmasters Irina Krush, two times US Women Champion, and Alexander Shabalov, four times US Men Champion, announced recently they will repeat his participation in the Miami Chess Open that will be played September 10-14 in the Magic City.

Some other strong players, as grandmasters Varuzhan Akobian, Viktor Mikhalevsky, Darmen Sadvakasov, Julio Becerra and Gilberto Hernández will also return to play the second edition of this tournament, with USD 100,000 in prizes.

The new faces will be the US grandmasters Alexander Ivanov, and Dmitri Gurevich, and the Mexican Juan Carlos Gonzalez.

Official Site: https://www.themiamichessopen.com/index.htm